| Learning Objective #1: Describe health-promoting behaviors practiced by breast cancer survivors | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Identify the three personality components of hardiness |
Design: exploratory correlational quantitative design.
Population, Sample, Setting, Years: 65 female participants; 35 were breast cancer survivors and 30 were first degree relatives of breast cancer survivors, ages 18 to 76+; voluntarily solicited for this pilot study; years of survival ranged from one to twenty-five
Concept or Variables Studied Together: Pender’s Health-Promotion model and Kobasa-Oulette’s hardiness model.
Methods: Instrumentation included the Personal Views Survey (PVS), the Health-Promotion Lifestyle Profile II(HPLP II) and demographic data form; analyses of means, medians, and standard deviations for age and instrument scores, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analyses.
Findings: Hardiness was positively related to health-promoting behaviors; this was supported at the p<.001 level. Health-promoting behaviors were similar for both breast cancer survivors and non-survivors.
Conclusions: Hardiness was significantly correlated with health-promoting behaviors.
Implications: The identification of a stress-resistant personality factor, hardiness, may be viewed as a predictor of health-promoting behaviors in this population of female breast cancer survivors and their “at risk” relatives. This study is significant to nursing education and practice since these results may serve to guide curriculum development for client education programs with emphasis on the specific needs of an identified “at risk” group. Results of this study would assist the nurse educator to teach specific lifestyle interventions to nurses, nursing students and health care providers who are working in the specialty area of women’s health. Some topical areas include how to increase daily exercise, promote healthy diets, promote positive feelings about themselves, obtain support, decrease and manage stress, and take health responsibility. These interventions will promote improved health outcomes for all women with particular emphasis on the women whose lives have been impacted by a diagnosis of cancer.
See more of Strategies to Promote Health to High Risk Populations
See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)